Diseases That Ticks Can Transmit to Dogs

1 Overview

These include:

1. Ehrlichiosis. This is the most common tick-borne disease in dogs. Caused by rickettsiae, it features anemia, low platelet count, bleeding, fever, lethargy, neurological disease, and polyarthritis in the legs.

2. Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Another rickettsial tick-borne disease, most common April–September, with fever, neurological signs, breathing difficulty, bleeding disorders, arrhythmia, anemia, and organ failure.

3. Lyme disease. A well-known but not fully understood tick-borne disease. The organism is Borrelia burgdorferi, usually spread by deer ticks. Symptoms include polyarthritis in the legs, weight loss, poor appetite, lethargy, and fever.

4. Acute fever. A rare disease from spirochete bacteria. Symptoms usually include intermittent and recurring fever, poor appetite, and stupor.

5. Hemobartonellosis. Not fully understood, possibly spread by fleas and ticks. Hemobartonella is a parasite attached to red blood cells. Most infected dogs show no signs; rarely, anemia may result from excessive breakdown of affected red cells.

6. Babesiosis. Often linked to Florida racing dogs. Mainly tropical, caused by a protozoan parasite affecting red blood cells. Once infected, red cells are destroyed, causing anemia, jaundice, fever, bleeding, and low platelets.

7. Hepatozoonosis. Caused by a protozoan parasite; infected dogs show fever, weight loss, muscle inflammation and pain, bloody diarrhea, and eye/nose discharge.

8. Tularemia. This bacterial disease is also tick-borne and usually linked to rabbits. Infected dogs show fever and abscesses and may die from bloodstream bacterial infection.